Role-playing games can take players anywhere in time and space. If you favour the dark dungeons of fantasy, you can spend tens of hours wandering through Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights. If you prefer some science-fiction in your fantasy, then Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic fits the bill nicely.
Those of you familiar with those three games will note that it seems BioWare knows how to make RPGs, no matter where they're set. How do they fare in a setting inspired by Chinese mythology?
Originally an Xbox exclusive - the reason I know nothing about it - Jade Empire sees players navigate the mysteries and the many dangers of a world where the dead can't rest. How are your martial arts skills?
Fun Times
A few years later, Jade Empire was released on the PC as a Special Edition title with upgraded graphics and new abilities, and it's this version that I'm playing. It opens with a character select screen, showing off a handful of folks, male and female, each with their own fighting style and abilities.
With absolutely no idea what this game is about, I go with Furious Ming on name alone. What's he getting up to? In fact, what is this game?
We begin in Two Rivers, a martial arts school, I guess, where we're in the middle of a sparring session. The PC release was tuned for keyboard and mouse control, but I pick up the controller and get to work. The A button attacks, the B button Blocks, and double-tapping the left stick in a direction will let you leap and dodge out of the way.
It's not the most comfortable of combat controls. Slow and cumbersome until you're in position, and then a flurry of attacks knocks your opponent down in seconds. Perhaps it's designed to show how preparation and approach are just as important in a fight as striking hard, fast, and with intent to end a fight.
Or maybe it's just weird controls.
We explore the school a little, learning that the camera and running controls are also on the weird side, and meet up with our master to get things going. We're special - aren't we always? - and are given multiple dialogue options to branch our conversation in whatever way we please.
Sadly, we're not voiced, whereas everyone else is. It's starting to get a little silly and gives the impression that we're a bit of an idiot, though I can do that myself, without being mute.
There are some strange things afoot, and we're close to completing our training and learning of our destiny. Our talk is interrupted by a messenger reporting bandits attacking the village, and we're given instructions to grab fellow student Dawn Star and a weapon and get set up for defence.
She's in a conversation with Gao the Lesser, a bit of a dick, but time is of the essence and I've no intention to chat at any length. Picking the options to get the plot moving, we gain Dawn Star as a follower and proceed into town.
The fight is incredibly brief. I chose to play on the easiest setting, which may have something to do with the speed at which these bandits fell. Whether it did or not, it feels like anyone who gets within arms reach of me will end up on the floor in seconds. There's a way to unleash a more powerful attack with the X button, but I'm not quite sure how it works. I glow for a bit, as though I'm charging up, but then nothing of note seems to happen, so I slap them as usual instead. Maybe it makes my slaps harder next time I use them. No idea.
Around the corner is the weapon shop. Two legendary weapons have been held back for us, and have been since our birth, more or less. We're destined for greatness and have the choice between a staff and a sword. I listen to the story of the sword's history. I can't be bothered to listen to that of the staff's, but, generously, the weapon fated to be mine since my birth can be swapped if I don't like it. I'm sure I'll like it.
Running to the beach, where the bandits are launching their attack on the village from, we find the reason for there being a gore option in the menu, as a cannon absolutely wrecks a bunch of villagers. This guy isn't messing around, and neither are we.
After a wave of generic thugs, this guy raises the bar and summons ghosts to fight on his behalf. It is at this point that Jade Empire stops being an RPG and starts to become an unusual RPG. I wasn't fully on board with the game - it felt a little awkward to control and I wasn't a massive fan of paragraphs of mystical waffle - but something was making me rethink that.
And then a cutscene of our master running through the village to our aid, leaping onto the bandit's ship, blowing it up with his bare hands, and then slapping the life out of the villain suggests that I should probably keep playing to see where this all goes...
We get a little bit of freedom to chat with the locals and explore the village, but the level up notification grabs my attention more. Like any other RPG, you've got stats to focus on your health and magic, or Chi, and Jade Empire also has a Focus mechanic, which slows down time, as though you're in The Matrix.
You can also increase the effectiveness of your abilities and can learn more through sidequests and discoveries and levelling up in general, I suspect. Seeing as I use Thousand Cuts as a default attack, I make sure it remains useful to me by splashing the stat points across it.
Frustrations
Heading back to school to learn what's going on, we get a lot of dialogue. Jade Empire likes its dialogue. Not only that, but it likes talking a lot and saying very little. It's all very wishy-washy. Yes, we're being trained for something really important. Yes, strange things are going on. Yes, there are mystical powers and mysterious forces, but what does it all mean? Are we finally allowed a clear picture of what's going on?
We enter The Spirit Cave to get our answers. Also, we get an amulet that attracts the spirits of the dead. Handy. After shooing some ghosts away - you can't kill the dead, of course - we're visited by another mysterious being, who tells us that we are a Spirit Monk, the last, in fact, and all this mess is ours to fix.
You bet we're going to choose fire...
Further Fun Times
With the story picking up its pace a bit, I'm starting to get into Jade Empire. I'm ignoring its control quirks and dealing with its dialogues, and want to push forward through the story to see what's coming next.
And here are some out of context highlights.
We're wading through the swamps on the tail of Gao the Lesser, who has kidnapped Dawn Star. This guy, Zu, tries his best not to join me on my quest, but soon decides against it upon hearing that I'm looking for Dawn Star. Her name must mean something around these parts. She does have the power to interact with the dead, after all. I get the impression that's not normal around these parts.
Tracking her down to a cave, we get ready to face the huge beasts that dwell therein - only they, too, fall in seconds on account of our immense strength/low difficulty level. I really can't stress how dominant I feel in the combat, even with all the bumbling of slowly getting into position. Once in range, a few attacks whittle health bars down to nothing.
We find Gao and Dawn Star in no time at all, and Gao sees this as his last stand. We oblige and fight until there is a clear winner. He's been taught some techniques outside of the school, but by this point, so have we. Immolate us all you want, Gao. I'll just use my healing ability while Dawn Star grabs your attention, before diving back in and unleashing a thousand cuts upon you.
The fight is as swift as all the others. Gao had been dealt with. We ought to be getting back to school. I ought to be finding a reason to stop playing Jade Empire.
Huh. Rocket planes. Well, I can't stop playing Jade Empire just yet, can I? There just so happens to be a rocket plane nearby, looking like a giant insect. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Hell no, you're not. I wasn't thinking I'd see a shoot 'em up mini-game at any point in this mystical RPG, that's for sure. But here it is. Let's take down some planes.
Now that's a point to stop playing for the evening. You've finally got me hooked, Jade Empire. Nicely done.
Final Word
Jade Empire started off a little clunky and lacked finesse. In fact, it remains a little clunky and lacking finesse. Animations are noticeably unnatural. In some scenes, everyone in the background just stands still, as though their existence has been forgotten about. It looks like a very competent first attempt, but there's lots of room for improvement.
I still haven't got the hang of the controls. Fights are a bit of a joke, but they go in my favour, so I can't complain. Running stops if you dare to move the camera around to take in the sights, your character then sidestepping as though always on edge, ready for a fight.
But despite all of this, I am definitely eager to see where this unusual game will go. I generally don't find myself attracted to games that take place in this kind of setting, but when it's the backdrop to a BioWare RPG, you should take notice.
Jade Empire may not be the name that rolls off the tongue when tasked to list BioWare RPGs, but it's one that ought to get a look at if you've not done so. Is it a little janky and dated? Most definitely. Is it for everyone? Probably not, no. Will you have a good time playing through it. I bet you will. I sure hope I will.
Fun Facts
Perhaps in a nod to the way it looks and plays, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk felt they should have waited and released their dream project, their own IP, on the Xbox 360 instead.
Jade Empire, developed by BioWare, first released in 2005.
Version played: Jade Empire: Special Edition, PC, 2007.